


Child of the Full Moon

by Nightfoot



Series: Goretober 2016 [3]
Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, F/M, Goretober 2016, Werewolf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-08-20 05:12:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8237314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfoot/pseuds/Nightfoot
Summary: A curse placed upon Estelle turns her into a werewolf and she very nearly loses everything.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A short for Goretober 2016. This time the prompt is "bloodbath".

Pale light from the waxing moon drifted through the gap in Estelle’s curtains. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, wondering if that was what had woken her up. But then, it might have been servants or guards walking outside her door. A castle was never quiet, and with a war on the verge of breaking out with the neighbouring kingdom, the security had noticeably increased.

She slipped out of bed and approached the window. The stone floor chilled her bare feet and her long nightgown fluttered around her ankles. Through the window, she looked down on the town she had never walked through. The king said she had to stay inside the castle for her own protection, but she couldn’t help dreaming of the day she got to leave. Flynn, the Captain of the Guard, told her so many stories about his rides through the countryside and sights he’d seen beyond the castle. Someday, she would go out there herself. During the day, she could see the edge of a distant forest from her bedroom, but everyone said it was home to monsters and she was forbidden to ever go there. She couldn’t stay cooped up in here forever. And maybe… she smiled to herself as she tugged the curtain closed, maybe someday Flynn would take her out to see the woods and it wouldn’t be dangerous, because she’d be with him. It would be just the two of them, exploring the wilderness and seeing the world….

A girl could dream, couldn’t she? Flynn wasn’t royal enough to be an appropriate marriage for a princess, but she could enjoy spending time with him while they could.

Estelle turned to go back to her bed, but she paused. There was something… something not quite right in her room, but she couldn’t put her finger on what. She approached her bed, slowly. Light alone usually wasn’t enough to wake her, so perhaps the something she noticed now was what had disturbed her sleep. Some sound, perhaps. Estelle concentrated on her hearing as she stood next to her bed and peered around the dark room. She considered lighting a candle, but didn’t want to be wasteful over what was probably nothing. Then, experimentally, she held her breath.

The sound of breathing continued, and it was coming from under her bed.

Estelle leapt back at the same time a hand shot out and grabbed her ankle. The hand pulling forward and her body moving backward was enough to throw her off her feet and she landed hard on the ground. A human figure crawled out from beneath her bed, and she kicked her free foot right at his face. It landed with satisfying solidity and the man’s head jerked aside.

“Guards!” she screamed and started to get up. “Guards, come-”

The intruder grabbed her arm and yanked her forward, slapping a hand over her mouth. Estelle shoved against him, but he seemed to be made of solid muscle. He turned around and tossed her onto her bed. Estelle screamed against as soon as her mouth was free, and then the intruder straddled her on the bed and pressed her right arm against the mattress, palm up. He didn’t seem to care about her screaming anymore, probably because anyone who would answer would have heard her by now and were already coming.

“Get off me!” Estelle struggled against his weight crushing her into the bed. When the dim light flashed on a knife, her struggles became more earnest. “No, no, stop! What do you want?! G-go away!”

She used her free hand to punch him and then try to hold back the wrist with the knife, but he was too strong for her. The knife slashed across her pinned wrist and she whined at the sudden flash of pain.

He dropped the knife and pulled a glass vial, ripped the cork out with his teeth and then poured the contents on the bloody gash. It felt like fire being poured on the wound and Estelle’s eyes filled with tears. “Stop! Please, Mister Intruder, please stop!”

He moved fast, probably because he could heard the running footsteps coming down the hall, too. The cut burned as he rubbed the liquid into the wound, while he chanted in a strange language she didn’t know. Estelle continued doing her best to punch and kick him, but he probably weighed twice as much as she did and she didn’t think he even noticed her attacks.

The door burst open and a handful of guards swarmed in. “The princess! Protect the princess!”

Finally the weight left her as the man swung his legs over the bed and made a break for the window. He didn’t get far. The guards were upon him in moments, and Estelle rolled on her side and squeezed her eyes shut. She wished she could close her ears so she didn’t have to hear the squelches and grunts as he died. Her breath came fast and she clutched her bloody wrist. She had no idea what the man had poured into the wound, but it still burned.

“Lady Estellise!” Flynn’s voice did wonders to calm her down.

When she opened her eyes, she saw him running into the room. “Flynn!”

“What happened?” he demanded of his guards.

“We heard the princess scream and came running. This man was assaulting her in her bed.”

Flynn’s frantic gaze turned to Estelle. “Are you-”

“I’m fine.” She pulled herself up. “I mean… he cut me.” She held out her blood wrist. “But that’s all.”

Flynn nodded in relief. “Remove the body. Inform His Majesty what has happened. Tell him I will discuss it with him in his study in twenty minutes.”

“Yes, sir!”

When the guards had left with the body, Flynn sat on the edge of the bed. He kept both feet firmly on the ground for the sake of propriety, but that didn’t stop Estelle from crawling up against him. Flynn wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her tight until the shaking stopped.

“Are you sure you’re fine?” he murmured.

She nodded and then ran her finger over the cut. “It’s already healed, look.”

Flynn’s rough finger traced the raised, red line, but pulled back when she hissed in pain. It was still sensitive. “Sorry. That’s odd that it closed so quickly, though.”

“He poured something in it. It burned when it went in and he said strange words. Flynn, I think it was something magic. Who could he have been?”

“Someone from the other kingdom, I’m sure. You know war is about to break out. I suppose they thought putting a curse on the princess would be a good way to kick things off.”

Estelle licked her lips and eyed the blood smeared across her wrist. “I wonder what kind of curse it was.”

* * *

 

That had been a week ago. Estelle sat on a pillow in a red tent, pushing peas around her plate. She’d always dreamed of leaving the castle and seeing more of the world, but… not like this.

“You should eat,” Flynn said. “You haven’t eaten much all day.”

“I know.” Her stomach growled, but the thought of food made her nauseous. She pushed her plate toward Flynn. “You eat it.”

“I already had my dinner.”

“Then give it to one of your men.”

“They’ve already eaten, too. The only one who still needs to eat is you.”

Beyond the tent, she heard the low voices and laughter of the retinue of soldiers. It had been two days since they left the castle, and the adventure of finally leaving her home had given way to a new type of boredom. She spent her days sitting in the carriage all alone, surrounded by guards who never spoke to her. She wished Flynn could sit in the carriage with her, but as the captain, he had to ride at the front and lead the retinue.

“I’ll eat when we get to Aspio. How much longer will it be, do you think?”

Flynn eyed her untouched dinner. “We’ll probably arrive tomorrow afternoon. Please, Estellise, it’s unhealthy to go without eating. Do you really feel that dreadful?”

She rested a hand over her empty stomach. “I really do, Flynn. I’m so hungry, but I feel like if I eat, I’ll throw up. I’ve felt like this ever since….”

Flynn reached across the table to rest his hand on hers. Estelle smiled as his thumb rubbed the side of her hand. One good thing about this trip was that they had a lot more chances to be alone together than they did in the castle. She wondered if after she got back, the restrictions placed on her would be lifted. After all, she’d been confined to the castle to keep her safe, and that clearly hadn’t worked.

After a week, Estelle still couldn’t figure out exactly what the man had done to her. The mark on her wrist left a sensitive scar, but she hadn’t noticed any dark magic surrounding her, other than difficulty sleeping at night and finding food unappetizing despite her empty stomach. However, there was a mighty wizard in the city of Aspio, and it was the king’s hope that this Mordio could identify - and hopefully lift - the curse.

“Alright,” Flynn said and squeezed her hand. “As long as you promise to share a huge meal with me as soon as Mordio lifts the curse.”

She beamed at him. “I will, Flynn. I promise.”

“Ok. I think we should both get some sleep now. We’ll be up at dawn to hit the road again.”

Estelle followed Flynn to the exit of her tent. Before he left, she grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug. “Flynn…” she mumbled into his chest, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Flynn rubbed her back. “I’m sorry that this happened to you in the first place to necessitate the trip, but I’m glad I can be with you since it has.” He kissed the top of her head and then pushed the tent flap open.

When Estelle entered the tent after they first step up camp, it had still been sunset. It was pure night now, and the full moon shone straight above them. Estelle’s eyes locked on it like a moth fixated on a torch.

“Estellise?”

Tingling erupting all over her body. “I… I feel…”

“Estellise? What’s wrong?”

Her chest tightened. The tingling turned to burning. She gasped and hunched over as aches radiated through her body.

“Estellise!” Flynn rubbed her back as he looked around the tent, panicked. “Are you sick? What can I do for you?”

“Oh… oh….” Estelle moaned as needles prickled every inch of skin. She shook away Flynn’s hand, which only made it worse. Every muscle ached and she culd feel them pulling and stretching, straining her bones. “F-Flynn - I -” she broke off with a cry. Whatever the man had done to her that night, she had a feeling she was about to find out what it was.

Estelle fell to her knees. Her limbs twitched and cracked, her skin was on fire, her heart throbbed in her ears. She let out another cry when her fingers bent and cracked of their own accord and her face filled with agony from intense pressure. Blood rushed past her ears and she squeezed her eyes shut to try to deal with the awful, all-encompassing pain. She thought her body was going to rip itself apart from the inside and then a sensation swept over her that even managed to dwarf the pain: she was so  _hungry_.

* * *

 

It was the caw of a raven that woke Estelle up. Her eyes flashed open to see early dawn sunlight and a raven picking at a corpse. Grass tickled her cheek and a cool breeze ran over her bare leg.

Wait - bare leg? With a jolt, Estelle realized she was naked. She gasped and sat up, squeezing her legs together and wrapping her arms over her chest. “What…?” The taste of blood in her mouth surprised her. Had she bitten her cheek? She looked around to get an idea of where she was. The last thing she remembered was saying goodnight to Flynn, and then she’d seen the moon and started to feel prickly and uncomfortable. She was still at the campsite along the road, but her tent lay in ruins and the guards….

“No!” There had been about twenty men in the party escorting the princess to Aspio. That many corpses now littered what had once been a campsite. “No, oh no, oh why….”

Estelle crawled toward the nearest soldier, the one with a raven munching on exposed innards. “Shoo!” When Estelle waved her hands at the bird, she saw them streaked with blood. She gasped and gazed at them, turning them over and over as if she’d suddenly realized they were hers. Not only were they bloody, but she felt thickness under her fingernails from dried blood. “Oh my goodness.” What had happened last night? Why couldn’t she remember? Something must have attacked the camp, and she barely survived defending herself from it.

She examined the wounds on the soldier. He was covered in claw and bite marks, like he’d been attacked by a large wolf. Memories flitted through her mind - running soldiers, screaming, the scent of blood, the taste of meat. She swallowed deeply and looked back toward the tent. Sticking out from the entrance was the sleeve of the blue gown she’d been wearing, now ripped to shreds. What had done that?

“Oh, no.” The ground was covered in footprints. Mostly human, but there were large, wolfish prints in the soft ground as well. They led toward the patch of grass where she’d woken up and then disappeared. “Oh, god.” Estelle put her hands to her mouth an felt more blood. With one of the few bare patches on the back of her hand, she rubbed around her mouth and cheeks and realized her face was also covered in blood. There were no cuts on the inside of her mouth, but the taste nearly overwhelmed her. “No,” she gasped. “Oh, no, no, _no_!”

She scrambled to her feet and hurried to the next body. She tried not to look down at herself as she walked, unable to stomach the sight of her body so covered in blood. It clung to her hair and tickled as it dried on her stomach. She dropped to her knees in front of the next soldier, a young man no older than eighteen. Chunks of muscle were missing from his arm, exposing gnawed bone. Estelle noted that for the first time in several days, her stomach felt full.

Disgust strangled the scream trying to get out. She turned away and stuck her fingers down her throat until she choked and vomited. Estelle kept her eyes shut tight and when she’d fully emptied her stomach, she looked away and refuse to see what had come up.

“No… oh, god, no….” There was meat caked under her nails and a piece of something stuck between her teeth. Feeling it on her tongue made her heave again even though all that was left in her stomach was bile. Her arms squeezed her chest and a proper scream finally escaped, ripping out with enough force to hurt her throat. When she ran out of breath, she took a gulp of air that brought a fresh taste of blood and then she screamed again until an opportunistic raven fled in fright.

And finally, a fresh horror was able to cut through her mind: Flynn. Her whole chest tensed up and all she could do was moan in horror. _Flynn_. Where was he? Did he lay among these corpses? Among her _prey_?

Estelle rose to her shaky feet. She had to find him. If she’d… if, during her rampage last night, she’d turned on… oh, God, she couldn’t even think it. She just had to know. Estelle stumbled through the grass, gazing upon each face with a fresh wave of guilt. They were all dead because of her. She stumbled over clumps of grass and the breeze was cool on all her exposed skin. But, she figured, she was now covered in more blood than some women wore cloth. Besides, it wasn’t the wind that sent shivers down her spine every few seconds.

She reached the edge of the group of soldiers, but she hadn’t found Flynn. Could he have escaped? No, that wasn’t Flynn. He wouldn’t run away while his men were still in danger. Then her eyes fell on the bright red tent and she recalled him standing beside her, frantically trying to help, as the transformation wracked her body. He’d been right next to her when she changed. _Oh god_.

Estelle staggered toward the tent, unwilling to move any faster. She couldn’t bear to find confirmation that she’d killed Flynn, just like she’d killed all these soldiers. Blood had splattered her feet when she first woke up, but the grass was so bathed in it that she could have been wearing red socks by the time she reached the tent. She fell to her knees once more and grabbed the fabric of the tent, throwing it to the side. A pair of legs emerged, streaked with blood. Her stomach twisted and she pushed the tent all the way off, revealing Flynn lying still. Claw marks dug into his cheek and jaw, his chest was ripped up, and she could almost see the bone in a deep bite near his elbow.

“Flynn!” Estelle screamed. She knelt beside him and buried her face in her hands. “Flynn… Flynn, no….” Tears sprang up in her eyes and she sobbed, “No… no….” Was it Flynn she tasted on her tongue? She really was a monster. Surely, even if she’d become a beast, some animal part of her would have recognized Flynn as a friend.

Fingers brushed her knee. Estelle gasped so hard she choked on her tears and looked to see Flynn’s bloodied fingers twitching.

“Flynn!”

His eyes cracked open and slowly focused on her. “Good,” he croaked, his voice barely audible. “You’re ok.”

She stared with incredulity and for a moment, all she could do was sob again. “Of course I’m ok! But you! Oh, Flynn, oh my god, I’m so sorry….” Perhaps her animalistic self had recognized Flynn after all. Not enough to hold back an attack, but enough to keep from finishing the job.

“Not your fault,” Flynn muttered and closed his eyes again.

Estelle grabbed Flynn’s and and squeezed tightly. “Flynn, Flynn please, stay with me. I c-can’t have killed you. I couldn’t live with myself.”

“’M not dead.”

But he would be soon if she didn’t do anything. He still had so many open wounds and he was so weak. She had to do something!

With trembling hands and vision blurred by tears, Estelle cut the tent apart to make bandages. There were plenty of abandoned knives available. She tied them tight around his wounds, wincing at every pained grunt and whimper he let out when she jostled him. Flynn wasn’t supposed to be weak like this, but then, she wasn’t supposed to have done this to him. When she’d done everything that she could for him, she took the remainder of the tent, wrapped it around her shoulders, and curled up on the gross beside him. She knew she couldn’t carry him all the way to Aspio by herself, but another carriage would come along the road eventually. It had to.

Estelle pressed her head against him as she lay tight. Would this happen again tonight? What if this Mordio wizard didn’t know how to fix it? She couldn’t awake to a bloodbath like this ever again. For Flynn’s sake, she couldn’t let this happen again. So, she would wait for a traveller. They’d go to Aspio, Flynn would get the medical attention he needed, and Mordio would find a way to reverse the curse so that no one ever suffered because of her again. And if Mordio couldn’t, well…. Estelle sniffled and curled up closer to Flynn, hoping to get as much closeness from him as she could while she had the chance. If Mordio couldn’t fix this, then she would leave. She couldn’t risk anything even remotely close to this happening to Flynn again. She would go to the woods, and live beneath the trees she’d always dreamed of visiting. After all, everyone said the forest was was where monsters lived.

 


End file.
